The 2023 Graduate Student Book Review Colloquium on Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh:

The AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies and The Maydan, the Center’s public-facing scholarship platform, present the Seventh Annual Graduate Student Book Review Colloquium on Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies to be held virtually on Thursday, December 7, 2023.

​*For the first time in 2023, we are offering a specific theme through a partnership with the Black American Muslim Internationalism Project (BAMI), a Luce Foundation supported research initiative directed by Dr. Aminah Al-Deen at ACGIS.

​*A second first for the Colloquium is the offering of a panel that will be dedicated to undergraduate applicants only. Please refer to the application procedures detailed below. The deadline for applications is 11:59pm EST on September 15, 2023.

Objective

The Colloquium invites advanced graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in the social sciences and humanities to submit reviews on a select list of books related to the overall themes of the BAMI Project.

The Colloquium is organized by The Maydan, the public-facing scholarship platform of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies and the BAMI Project. The Maydan is dedicated to supporting Islamic Studies with the recognition that academic scholarship in this field of inquiry is currently in need of discussions and publications that are able to disseminate research to a larger audience. The Colloquium aims to foster a lasting conversation between academic and lay readership.

At the Colloquium, the accepted students will have the opportunity to present their book reviews in pre-organized panels lasting 20 minutes, and then discuss their reviews with leading scholars in the field. The Colloquium will take place on Zoom.

In selecting their books, reviewers are expected to focus on a single monograph from the list presented above – as a general rule, edited volumes and reference works remain outside the scope of this Colloquium, applicants should contact atekelio@gmu.edu to discuss exceptions – and to demonstrate engagement with the existing literature, using references to at least two books on a similar theme. The reviewers are encouraged to construct their works with particular attention to the context, content, and critique of the selected book.

Application Process and Important Dates

Interested candidates should submit the following:

1) A 500-word abstract that presents a justification for the selection of the work under examination.

2) A short writing sample (5 pages maximum) on the broader themes of the selected book.(for graduate student applicants only)

3) A resume (2 pages maximum).

All three documents should be emailed to Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu at atekelio@gmu.edu as a single PDF file by September 15, 2023, 11:59 pm EST.

The subject line of the email should appear in the following format: [LASTNAME, BOOK REVIEW COLLOQUIUM 2023]

Acceptance notices and the books under review will be sent to the reviewers on October 8, 2023.

Reviewers will be asked to submit their reviews (1300 words maximum) by December 4, 2023.

List of Possible Books

Soundtrack to a Movement: African American Islam, Jazz, and Black Internationalism by Richard Brent Turner . 2021
Elijah Muhammad and Supreme Literacy by Lydia Magras Muhammad. 2022
America’s Other Muslims: Imam W.D, Mohammed, The Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam. by Muhammad Fraser Rahim. 2020
Once in a Lifetime by Amina Wadud. 2022.
At Their Feet: 50 Black Muslim Elders Share Stories of Faith and Communal Life. edited by Zarinah El-Amin et al.,2022.
American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC. by Shahan Mufti. 2022.
The Islamic Secular by Sherman Jackson, 2023.
Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam by Sylvia Chan-Malik .2018
I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said’s America by Mbaye Lo and Carl Ernst. 2023
The Story of Rufino: Slavery, Freedom and Islam in the Black Atlantic by João José Reis (Author), Flávio dos Santos Gomes (Author), Marcus J. M. de Carvalho (Author), Sabrina Gledhill (Translator).2020

ACGIS will work with accepted applicants to make sure they have access to the books that they selected are available to them. If you have a book in mind that is not on this list, please email us at atekelio@gmu.edu. Please note books under review should be published in 2018-2023 period.

Honorariums & Publishing with Maydan

Final products will be considered for publication on The Maydan. The AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University will offer a $200 honorarium for participation and an additional $100 to the eligible authors of reviews that are selected for publication.